Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Trent (Agenzia Fides) - Saturday 7 October feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Trent diocese will open the local stage of the process for the canonisation of Fr. Mario Borzaga, an Oblate Missionary of Mary Immaculate (OMI), and catechist Thoj Xyooj Paolo, brutally killed in May 1960 in Laos. Fr. Mario was 27 and the catechist 19.
Fr. Mario Borzaga died in Laos in May 1960. He was born in Trent in 1932, the youngest of six children. At the age of 20 he entered the Congregation of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate OMI and in 1957 departed for mission in Laos, with the first group of Italian Oblates. At the Catholic mission in Paksane he became familiar with missionary life and the local language and culture. At the end of April 1960 he set out with Xyong, a young Hmong catechist to visit a few villages. Only 40 years later it was confirmed that the two men had been killed by local warriors. Mario was a victim of the political/social instability in Laos at that time which found in rejection of foreigners its most eloquent expression. Other missionaries were killed or threatened in those years .
In an interview to Fr. Pasquale Castrilli, Fr Angelo Pelis Postulator underlines the exemplarity of Mario Borzaga: “First of all a believer who lives the emotion of discovering the greatest yes in history: Mary’s yes to God’s plan! He is a poet, he is young, but he is above all as he wishes to be: “a happy man, priest, apostle, missionary…and martyr”. A soul open to the light of Christ, in love with his priesthood, with the Immaculate and Sorrowful Mother and with the Mission.
At the age of 27 he was killed with his catechist Thoj Xyooj Paolo (only 19). In his diary we find three key words: saint, martyr, bloodshed.”
Among the many messages this young missionaries hands on today, Fr. Pelis underlines one: “to be a saint age is not important; to be a saint there is no need to do anything out of the ordinary, although martyrdom is a special grace. Fr. Mario will be a saint not only because he was a martyr but he earned the crown of martyrdom because he responded to the call to holiness. He encourages us to imitate him. He wrote: “It is not enough to admire saints we must imitate them”.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 2/10/2006; righe 27; parole 402)
